The Democratic presidential hopeful said during a CNN Town Hall on Wednesday night that his mom was “for the first time alone in the house” after he left for college, so he treated her to the X-rated trip to the movies when he returned home for Thanksgiving so she didn’t feel left out.

Hickenlooper, the youngest of four children and whose father died when he was 8, thought the X-rated nature of the film would mean it was “a little naughty” but not “that bad.”

“You’ve gotta understand, I was 18 years old,” he explained.

The whole experience left him “humiliated,” he said.

His mother was “mortified” at the first scene. But, she didn’t want to leave the theater during the movie because she’d paid for her ticket. Hickenlooper said he thought she had “a little grin” on her face as they drove home.